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Fazul Mahamed quits NGO Coordination Board

In a letter seen by Capital FM News, Mahamed says he will vacate the office he has held for three years effective May 1, 2018/FILE

NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 26 – The Executive Director of the Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) Co-ordination Board, Fazul Mahamed, has resigned from office.

In a letter seen by Capital FM News, Mahamed says he will vacate the office he has held for three years effective May 1, 2018.

“I wish to sincerely thank the Board of Directors for the invaluable opportunities extended and I commit to effecting an expedient and smooth transition,” reads the letter copied to Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi and Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho.

The letter does not give reasons for the unexpected move.

His period in office has been shrouded by controversy ranging from some drastic moves to deregister major NGOs operating in the country, some that are owned by politicians while his academic qualification has all along been a subject of debate.

On December 7, the Employment and Labour Relations Court issued orders preventing the government from extending his term of office pending the determination of a petition filed by activist Okiya Omtatah.

In the orders, Justice Hellen Wasilwa directed that the Interior Cabinet Secretary should not renew Mahamed’s term or re-appoint him pending the inter-partes hearing of the case.

She also prohibited Mahamed from accessing offices of the NGO Coordination Board and carrying out any functions of the body.

“An interim order is issued restraining the respondent and its agents or any person purporting to act under its authority from renewing, re-appointing, or in any way whatsoever extending the interested parties contractual tenure as the Executive Director of the NGO Coordination Board which expired on November 23rd 2017 pending the inter-partes hearing and determination of this application and the petition herein,” she stated.

In his suit papers, Omtatah argued that Mahamed’s three-year tenure as executive director at the board expired and that he should have taken terminal leave.

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He wants an acting executive director appointed in the transition period pending the competitive recruitment and appointment of a substantive office holder.

In November 2016, the Commission on Administrative Justice, known as the Ombudsman, declared Mahamed unfit to hold public office but he remained unmoved with no action taken against him.

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